The Brewing Transatlantic Tech War ⇥ foreignaffairs.com

Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, Foreign Affairs:

The global Internet will likely continue to exist in the form of shared technical infrastructure. But if U.S. companies persist in identifying with a U.S. administration that is hostile to Europe, it is likely that Europe will want its own companies and platforms to build technological fortifications against its former ally and protector. Chinese firms will try to expand in Europe, too, although they may also face greater public skepticism. Either way, the end result will be lower profits, weakened American innovation, and a more isolated and insecure United States.

I think the writers are positioning this as an argument to policymakers and leadership at tech companies — note again where this was published — so they have chosen appealing arguments for that audience. The opening of the essay repeatedly hammers the threat to the U.S. tech hegemony, as though that is an inherently bad thing. Fear not: the rest of this essay is far more nuanced than this suggests.